THURSDAY SPORTS: JETS SPANK KINGS

NHL

The Winnipeg Jets beat the Los Angeles Kings 5-2 Wednesday evening. Gabriel Vilardi had a goal and three assists for a career-high four points in his impressive return to Los Angeles. The Kings traded him last summer in the deal for Pierre-Luc Dubois. The Jets rallied from a two-goal deficit to finish their West Coast road trip with three out of four wins.

—

The New York Islanders won their fourth straight game, knocking off Anaheim 4-3.. The Islanders are 9-1-4 in their last 14 games and trail the first-place New York Rangers by just four points in the Metropolitan Division. Semyon Varlamov made 21 saves in the win.

—

It was a tough night for the Montreal Canadiens but a history-making one for Pittsburgh Penguins centre Sidney Crosby. Crosby tied former teammate Mark Recchi for 13th most points in NHL history with 1 thousand 533 in a 4-3 shootout win over Montreal. He had two goals and an assist in the win, which took 12 rounds of the shootout to decide.

WHL

SASKATOON – Brandon Lisowsky scored a goal and an assist as Saskatoon Blades topped Kamloops Blazers for their seventh straight win.

Lukas Hansen, Egor Sidorov, Easton Armstrong and Morgan Tastad all scored for Saskatoon.

Blades goaltender Evan Gardner stopped 24 of 25 shots.

Harrison Brunicke had the lone goal for Kamloops, with Blazers netminder Dylan Ernst stopping 21 of 25 shots.

SILVERTIPS 5 COUGARS 2

EVERETT – Teague Patton had a goal and 2 assists as the Everett Silvertips defeated Prince George Cougars.

Beau Courtney, Hayden Smith, Lukas Kaplan and Julius Miettinen all scored once for Everett.

Silvertips goaltender Tyler Palmer saved 25 of 27 shots.

Hudson Thornton and Terik Parascak scored for Prince George, who remain atop of the Western Conference standings despite the loss.

Cougars goaltender Joshua Ravensbergen saved 32 of 36 shots.

WHEAT KINGS 6 ROCKETS 3

BRANDON – Roger McQueen had a goal and an assist as Brandon Wheat Kings defeated Kelowna Rockets.

Tre Fouquette, Luke Shipley, Nolan Flamand, Quinn Mantei and Jayden Wiens all scored once for Brandon.

Wheat Kings goaltender Carson Bjarnason kicked out 16 of 19 shots.

Tij Iginla, Marek Rocak and Andrew Cristall all scored once for Kelowna.

Rockets netminder Jari Kykkanen kicked out 29 of 35 shots.

WINTERHAWKS 7 WILD 2

PORTLAND – Jack O’Brien scored twice as the Portland Winterhawks defeated the Wenatchee Wild.

The Winterhawks had five different scorers in the win: Hudson Darby, Gabe Klassen, Josh Davies, Josh Zakreski and Marcus Nguyen.

Winterhawks netminder Justen Maric saved 26 of 28 shots.

Graham Sward and Luka Shcherbyna had Wenatchee’s two goals.

Wild netminder Brendan Gee saved 32 of 38 shots.

REBELS 3 HITMEN 2

CALGARY – The Red Deer Rebels defeated the Calgary Hitmen during the shootout.

Kai Uchacz and Matthew Gard scored for Red Deer, with Rebels goaltender Chase Wutzke saving 33 of 35 shots.

Ethan Moore and Brandon Gorzynski had a goal each for Calgary.

Hitmen netminder Ethan Buenaventura stopped 30 of 32 shots.

TIGERS 6 HURRICANES 2

LETHBRIDGE – Cayden Lindstrom scored twice as the Medicine Hat Tigers topped the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Shane Smith, Andrew Basha, Vasyl Spilka and Oasiz Wiesblatt all had a goal for Medicine Hat.

Tigers netminder Ethan McCallum stopped 15 of 17 shots.

Trae Wilke and Tyson Zimmer had Lethbridge’s replies, while Hurricanes netminder Brady Smith stopped 27 of 33 shots.

THUNDERBIRDS 5 CHIEFS 3

SPOKANE – Sawyer Mynio scored twice as Seattle Thunderbirds defeated Spokane Chiefs.

Sam Popowich scored twice while Gracyn Sawchyn had the final goal for Seattle.

Thunderbirds goaltender Spencer Michnik made 38 saves in the win..

Berkly Catton, Saige Weinstein and Hayden Paupanekis all scored for Spokane with Chiefs goaltender Dawson Cowan stopping 38 of 43 shots.

NBA

Pascal Siakam’s three-point scoring touch returned in a big way as he scored 33 points and the Toronto Raptors beat the Atlanta Hawks 135-128. The win snapped a four game losing skid for the Raptors. Siakam says that although he always worked at his three-point shot, he never made it his focus because he knew the shots would eventually fall.

—

The NBA has handed down its punishment for Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green. Green has been suspended indefinitely by the league less than a day after he hit Phoenix Suns centre Jusuf Nurkic in the face. The suspension began immediately and the league says Green will have to follow complete several steps to be reinstated.

—

Giannis Antetokounmpo had heated words with members of the Indiana staff and raced toward the Pacers’ locker room Wednesday night as teams squared off in a hallway in a dispute over the game ball following Milwaukee star’s franchise-record 64-point performance. After Milwaukee’s 140-126 victory, Antetokounmpo had an animated discussion with Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton and other Pacers before rushing from the court toward the Indiana locker room, seemingly in search of the game ball.

(RP.com Wire Services)